


Home

by GrumpyJenn



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-04
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-03 00:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/375201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyJenn/pseuds/GrumpyJenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What he found when he went home for Christmas</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Home

Amy went in, leaving the Doctor on her doorstep. There were tears on his face and he slowly wiped them off with his fingers.  _Home,_  he thought.  _This is home_. Not Amy and Rory's house, not the Earth, not even the TARDIS, although she had been the closest to a home he had thought of as such in centuries. It wasn't the places, nor the times. It was the  _people_. Amy and Rory.  _They_ were his home. He almost shouted aloud with the joy of it, then collected himself and went into the house, into the warmth and the light and the friendship.

And  _she_ was there. River Song, his lovely and clever River Song. Of course she was; it was her parents' house and Christmastime after all. Why hadn't he expected it? He looked at her, a little warily; who knew when she was in their complicated relationship? She gazed steadily back at him, with that little half smirk, but there was something in her eyes. She was hard to read, his River, but he thought she looked equally wary. "Rory, Amy, I'd like to take your lovely daughter for a walk before dinner, yeah?" He didn't wait for their answer, just grabbed River by the hand and led her out the door.

"What is it, my love?"

"I..." He didn't know where to begin. "I... River, I..." His eyes filled with tears again. "Right," he muttered under his breath, "All very good to have some humany-wumany emotion but if it's going to happen  _all the time_..." She looked at him, perplexed. He took a deep breath. "River. I need you to know... I've only just realized... it's  _home._   _ **You**_  are home. You and Amy and Rory... you're  _my home_. I..." Frustrated with his own inability to find the right words, he gripped the mass of curls at the back of her head and kissed her, pouring all the caring and frustration and longing for a home of his own into the kiss. She leaned into him, fisting her own hands into his hair, kissing him back. They broke apart as the snowflakes started to fall.

"Of course we are, my love. Always and completely. Now let's go home."

They turned, hand in hand, toward the lights and music of the Pond home.


	2. The Christmas Gift

"Rory," said the Doctor, hesitantly, "I need to speak with you."

Rory looked up, a bit warily. You never knew what the Doctor would do. Or say. Or who he would take along with him. He  _seemed_  to mean well, but disaster followed him everywhere and he tended to drag you into it. And Rory was intrigued...  _hesitant_ was not a word he associated with the Doctor. At all. "Right," he replied, "Come along, Doctor." They went out into the softly falling snow, away from the women laughing together in the warm Christmas-lit house.

"I've a problem, Rory. Rory the Roman. Father-in-law. I think you can help me with it, because I can trust you with the spoilers."

This statement both pleased Rory, and made him even more wary of what came next. The Doctor was a very... convoluted,,, sort of fellow, and Rory cursed himself for wanting to please the Doctor as much as anyone. He should know better. He sighed. "All right. Out with it."

So the Doctor told him, without dates or locations, the whole story. About the Library, and how he hadn't known River but she had known him in spite of his other body. How she had known his name and had his sonic screwdriver. How she had sacrificed herself for him and the rest. How he had discovered that she - her essence - was in the screwdriver and how he had saved her to the Library's memory banks. How he hoped he could somehow set her free and be with her again, someday.

Rory sighed again, more heavily this time. He wondered how much of River's sacrifice was atonement for the things she'd done and how much was suicidal despair over the Doctor not remembering her. And wondered afresh how the Doctor could be so very intelligent - far more so than any human being - and yet be so dense as to not see this. Well, maybe he  _did_ see it, somewhere or somewhen, but simply couldn't bear to acknowledge it. He seemed to need humans - specifically Rory himself - to point these things out to him.

"Have you given her the sonic screwdriver?"

"Well, no, I... I think that when I do... that'll be the last time I see her..."

"Oh. You know that's not logical, right? Trying to circumvent fate that way? Wouldn't you rather give it to her in your own way, in your own time, than to wait until circumstances force it? Give her some hope?"

The Doctor looked helplessly at Rory. "I... you always see things so clearly, Rory the Roman. I think that's why I... I needed to talk with you. Come on, Rory, we've got a gift to wrap. You can help me with the card." And he dragged Rory toward the TARDIS.

And the next morning, on Christmas Day, the Doctor perched on the arm of the chair where River was sitting drinking her tea. She smiled at him. "Happy Christmas, Sweetie." He ducked his head under her springy curls and whispered something into her ear. Her eyes grew wide. He took the teacup away from her and set it carefully on a table, pulled a small cylindrical gift-wrapped package out of his inner jacket pocket, and handed it to her, trying to put all the confused humany-wumany emotion he felt into his eyes.

"Open it." His voice cracked on the last word.

She opened the card. It read...

_To River, Christmas, Earth, Ponds' House_

_I may forget, but you must remember_

_that you are loved._

_Always and Completely Loved_


End file.
